Who Was Sojourner Truth?

Sojourner
Truth
(Isabella
Baumfree)

1797
-
1883

NAME:
Isabella
Baumfree
(Sojourner
Truth)

BIRTHDATE:
1797

BIRTHPLACE:
Ulster
County,
New
York

FAMILY
BACKGROUND:
Sojourner
Truth
was
born
in
1797
on
the
Colonel
Johannes
Hardenbergh
estate
in
Swartekill,
in
Ulster
County,
a
Dutch
settlement
in
upstate
New
York.
Her
given
name
was
Isabella
Baumfree
(also
spelled
Bomefree).
She
was
one
of
13
children
born
to
Elizabeth
and
James
Baumfree,
also
slaves
on
the
Hardenbergh
plantation.
She
spoke
only
Dutch
until
she
was
sold
from
her
family
around
the
age
of
nine.
Because
of
the
cruel
treatment
she
suffered
at
the
hands
of a
later
master,
she
learned
to
speak
English
quickly,
but
had
a
Dutch
accent
for
the
rest
of
her
life.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
She
was
first
sold
around
age
9
when
her
second
master
(Charles
Hardenbergh)
died
in
1808.
She
was
sold
to
John
Neely,
along
with
a
herd
of
sheep,
for
$100.
Neely's
wife
and
family
only
spoke
English
and
beat
Isabella
fiercely
for
the
frequent
miscommunications.
She
later
said
that
Neely
once
whipped
her
with
"a
bundle
of
rods,
prepared
in
the
embers,
and
bound
together
with
cords."
It
was
during
this
time
that
she
began
to
find
refuge
in
religion
--
beginning
the
habit
of
praying
aloud
when
scared
or
hurt.
When
her
father
once
came
to
visit,
she
pleaded
with
him
to
help
her.
Soon
after,
Martinus
Schryver
purchased
her
for
$105.
He
owned
a
tavern
and,
although
the
atmosphere
was
crude
and
morally
questionable,
it
was
a
safer
haven
for
Isabella.

But
a
year
and
a
half
later,
in
1810,
she
was
sold
again
to
John
Dumont
of
New
Paltz,
New
York.
Isabella
suffered
many
hardships
at
the
hands
of
Mrs.
Dumont,
whom
Isabella
later
described
as
cruel
and
harsh.
Although
she
did
not
explain
the
reasons
for
this
treatment
in
her
later
biography
narrative,
historians
have
surmised
that
the
unspeakable
things
might
have
been
sexual
abuse
or
harassment
(see
the
biography
on
Harriet
Jacobs,
the
only
former
slave
to
write
about
such),
or
simply
the
daily
humiliations
that
slaves
endured.

Sometime
around
1815,
she
fell
in
love
with
a
fellow
slave
named
Robert,
who
was
owned
by a
man
named
Catlin
or
Catton.
Robert's
owner
forbade
the
relationship
because
he
did
not
want
his
slave
having
children
with
a
slave
he
did
not
own
(and
therefore
would
not
own
the
new
'property').
One
night
Robert
visited
Isabella,
but
was
followed
by
his
owner
and
son,
who
beat
him
savagely
("bruising
and
mangling
his
head
and
face"),
bound
him
and
dragged
him
away.
Robert
never
returned.
Isabella
had
a
daughter
shortly
thereafter,
named
Diana.
In
1817,
forced
to
submit
to
the
will
of
her
owner
Dumont,
Isabella
married
an
older
slave
named
Thomas.
They
had
four
children:
Peter
(1822),
James
(who
died
young),
Elizabeth
(1825),
and
Sophia
(1826).

The
state
of
New
York
began
in
1799
to
legislate
the
gradual
abolition
of
slaves,
which
was
to
happen
July
4,
1827.
Dumont
had
promised
Isabella
freedom
a
year
before
the
state
emancipation,
"if
she
would
do
well
and
be
faithful."
However,
he
reneged
on
his
promise,
claiming
a
hand
injury
had
made
her
less
productive.
She
was
infuriated,
having
understood
fairness
and
duty
as a
hallmark
of
the
master-slave
relationship.
She
continued
working
until
she
felt
she
had
done
enough
to
satisfy
her
sense
of
obligation
to
him
--
spinning
100
pounds
of
wool
--
then
escaped
before
dawn
with
her
infant
daughter,
Sophia.
She
later
said:

"I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right."

Isabella
wandered,
not
sure
where
she
was
going,
and
prayed
for
direction.
She
arrived
at
the
home
of
Isaac
and
Maria
Van
Wagenen
(Wagener?).
Soon
after,
Dumont
arrived,
insisting
she
come
back
and
threatening
to
take
her
baby
when
she
refused.
Isaac
offered
to
buy
her
services
for
the
remainder
of
the
year
(until
the
state's
emancipation
took
effect),
which
Dumont
accepted
for
$20.
Isaac
and
Maria
insisted
Isabella
not
call
them
"master"
and
"mistress,"
but
rather
by
their
given
names.

Isabella
immediately
set
to
work
retrieving
her
young
son
Peter.
He
had
recently
been
leased
by
Dumont
to
another
slaveholder,
who
then
illegally
sold
Peter
to
an
owner
in
Alabama.
Peter
was
five
years
old.
First
she
appealed
to
the
Dumonts,
then
the
other
slaveholder,
to
no
avail.
A
friend
directed
her
to
activist
Quakers,
who
helped
her
make
an
official
complaint
in
court.
After
months
of
legal
proceedings,
Peter
returned
to
her,
scarred
and
abused.

During
her
time
with
the
Van
Wagenens,
Isabella
had
a
life-changing
religious
experience
--
becoming
"overwhelmed
with
the
greatness
of
the
Divine
presence"
and
inspired
to
preach.
She
began
devotedly
attending
the
local
Methodist
church
and,
in
1829,
left
Ulster
County
with
a
white
evangelical
teacher
named
Miss
Gear.
She
quickly
became
known
as a
remarkable
preacher
whose
influence
"was
miraculous."
She
soon
met
Elijah
Pierson,
a
religious
reformer
who
advocated
strict
adherence
to
Old
Testament
laws
for
salvation.
His
house
was
sometimes
called
the
"Kingdom,"
where
he
led
a
small
group
of
followers.
Isabella
became
the
group's
housekeeper.
Elijah
treated
her
as a
spiritual
equal
and
encouraged
her
to
preach
also.
Soon
after,
Robert
Matthias
arrived,
who
apparently
took
over
as
the
group's
leader,
with
the
activities
becoming
increasingly
bizarre.
In
1834,
Pierson
died
with
only
the
group's
members
attending.
His
family
called
the
coroner
and
the
group
disbanded.
The
Folger
family,
whose
house
the
group
had
moved
into,
accused
Robert
and
Isabella
of
stealing
their
money
and
poisoning
Elijah.
They
were
eventually
acquitted
and
Robert
traveled
west.

Isabella
settled
in
New
York
City,
but
she
had
lost
what
savings
and
possessions
she
had
had.
She
resolved
to
leave
and
make
her
way
as a
traveling
preacher.
On
June
1,
1843,
she
changed
her
name
to
Sojourner
Truth
and
told
friends,
"The
Spirit
calls
me
[East],
and
I
must
go."
She
wandered
in
relative
obscurity,
depending
on
the
kindness
of
strangers.
In
1844,
still
liking
the
utopian
cooperative
ideal,
she
joined
the
Northampton
Association
of
Education
and
Industry
in
Massachusetts.
This
group
of
210
members
lived
on
500
acres
of
farmland,
raising
livestock,
running
grist
and
saw
mills,
and
operating
a
silk
factory.
Unlike
the
Kingdom,
the
Association
was
founded
by
abolitionists
to
promote
cooperative
and
productive
labor.
They
were
strongly
anti-slavery,
religiously
tolerant,
women's
rights
supporters,
and
pacifist
in
principles.
While
there,
she
met
and
worked
with
abolitionists
such
as
William
Lloyd
Garrison,
Frederick
Douglass,
and
David
Ruggles.
Unfortunately,
the
community's
silk-making
was
not
profitable
enough
to
support
itself
and
it
disbanded
in
1846
amid
debt.

Sojourner
went
to
live
with
one
of
the
Association's
founders,
George
Benson,
who
had
established
a
cotton
mill.
Shortly
thereafter,
she
began
dictating
her
memoirs
to
Olive
Gilbert,
another
Association
member.
The
Narrative
of
Sojourner
Truth:
A
Northern
Slave
was
published
privately
by
William
Lloyd
Garrison
in
1850.
It
gave
her
an
income
and
increased
her
speaking
engagements,
where
she
sold
copies
of
the
book.
She
spoke
about
anti-slavery
and
women's
rights,
often
giving
personal
testimony
about
her
experiences
as a
slave.
That
same
year,
1850,
Benson's
cotton
mill
failed
and
he
left
Northampton.
Sojourner
bought
a
home
there
for
$300.
In
1854,
at
the
Ohio
Woman's
Rights
Covention
in
Akron,
Ohio,
she
gave
her
most
famous
speech
--
with
the
legendary
phrase,
"Ain't
I a
Woman?"
:

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ain't I a woman? ... I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me -- and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well -- and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me -- and ain't I woman?"

Sojourner
later
became
involved
with
the
popular
Spiritualism
religious
movement
of
the
time,
through
a
group
called
the
Progressive
Friends,
an
offshoot
of
the
Quakers.
The
group
believed
in
abolition,
women's
rights,
non-violence,
and
communicating
with
spirits.
In
1857,
she
sold
her
home
in
Northampton
and
bought
one
in
Harmonia,
Michigan
(just
west
of
Battle
Creek),
to
live
with
this
community.
In
1858,
at a
meeting
in
Silver
Lake,
Indiana,
someone
in
the
audience
accused
her
of
being
a
man
(she
was
very
tall,
towering
around
six
feet)
so
she
opened
her
blouse
to
reveal
her
breasts.

During
the
Civil
War,
she
spoke
on
the
Union's
behalf,
as
well
as
for
enlisting
black
troops
for
the
cause
and
freeing
slaves.
Her
grandson
James
Caldwell
enlisted
in
the
54th
Regiment,
Massachusetts.
In
1864,
she
worked
among
freed
slaves
at a
government
refugee
camp
on
an
island
in
Virginia
and
was
employed
by
the
National
Freedman's
Relief
Association
in
Washington,
D.C.
She
also
met
President
Abraham
Lincoln
in
October.
(A
famous
painting,
and
subsequent
photographs
of
it,
depict
President
Lincoln
showing
Sojourner
the
'Lincoln
Bible,'
given
to
him
by
the
black
people
of
Baltimore,
Maryland.)
In
1863,
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe's
article
"The
Libyan
Sibyl"
appeared
in
the
Atlantic
Monthly;
a
romanticized
description
of
Sojourner.
(The
previous
year,
William
Story's
statue
of
the
same
title,
inspired
by
the
article,
won
an
award
at
the
London
World
Exhibition.)
After
the
Civil
War
ended,
she
continued
working
to
help
the
newly
freed
slaves
through
the
Freedman's
Relief
Association,
then
the
Freedman's
Hospital
in
Washington.
In
1867,
she
moved
from
Harmonia
to
Battle
Creek,
converting
William
Merritt's
"barn"
into
a
house,
for
which
he
gave
her
the
deed
four
years
later.

In
1870,
she
began
campaigning
for
the
federal
government
to
provide
former
slaves
with
land
in
the
"new
West."
She
pursued
this
for
seven
years,
with
little
success.
In
1874,
after
touring
with
her
grandson
Sammy
Banks,
he
fell
ill
and
she
developed
ulcers
on
her
leg.
Sammy
died
after
an
operation.
She
was
successfully
treated
by
Dr.
Orville
Guiteau,
veterinarian,
and
headed
off
on
speaking
tours
again,
but
had
to
return
home
due
to
illness
once
more.
She
did
continue
touring
as
much
as
she
could,
still
campaigning
for
free
land
for
former
slaves.
In
1879,
Sojourner
was
delighted
as
many
freed
slaves
began
migrating
west
and
north
on
their
own,
many
settling
in
Kansas.
She
spent
a
year
there
helping
refugees
and
speaking
in
white
and
black
churches
trying
to
gain
support
for
the
"Exodusters"
as
they
tried
to
build
new
lives
for
themselves.
This
was
to
be
her
last
mission.

Sojourner
made
a
few
appearances
around
Michigan,
speaking
about
temperance
and
against
capital
punishment.
In
July
of
1883,
with
ulcers
on
her
legs,
she
sought
treatment
through
Dr.
John
Harvey
Kellogg
at
his
famous
Battle
Creek
Sanitarium.
It
is
said
he
grafted
some
of
his
own
skin
onto
her
leg.
Sojourner
returned
home
with
her
daughters
Diana
and
Elizabeth,
their
husbands
and
children,
and
died
there
on
November
26,
1883,
at
86
years
old.
She
was
buried
in
Oak
Hill
Cemetery
next
to
her
grandson.
In
1890,
Frances
Titus,
who
published
the
third
edition
of
Sojourner's
Narrative
in
1875
and
became
Sojourner's
traveling
companion
after
Sammy
died,
collected
money
and
erected
a
monument
on
the
gravesite,
inadvertently
inscribing
"aged
about
105
years."
She
then
commissioned
artist
Frank
Courter
to
paint
the
meeting
of
Sojourner
and
President
Lincoln.

Sojourner
Truth
has
been
posthumously
honored
in
many
ways
over
the
years:

a memorial stone in the Stone History Tower in Monument Park, downtown Battle Creek (1935);

a new grave marker, by the Sojourner Truth Memorial Association (1946);

a historical marker commemorating members of her family buried with her in the cemetery (1961);

Stetson,
Erlene,
and
Linda
David.
Glorying
in
Tribulation:
The
Lifework
of
Sojourner
Truth.
East
Lansing,
MI:
Michigan
State
University
Press,
1994.

Stewart,
James
Brewer.
Holy
Warriors:
The
Abolitionists
and
American
Slavery.
NY:
Hill
and
Wang,
1976.

Truth,
Sojourner.
Narrative
of
Sojourner
Truth;
a
Bondswoman
of
Olden
Time,
Emancipated
by
the
New
York
Legislature
in
the
Early
Part
of
the
Present
Century
with
a
History
of
her
Labors
and
Correspondence,
Drawn
from
Her
Book
of
Life.
Battle
Creek,
MI:
Published
for
the
Author,
1878.
Later
printing,
with
introduction
by
Margaret
Washington:
NY:
Vintage
Books,
1993.